Since the time when the traditional forked, slip-on clothespin began to be supplanted by the spring-biassed clamp-on clothespin, e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,832,757, resilient garment clamps with pivoted mating jaws have been well known. In the retail garment industry, wire garment hangers with spring-biassed metal clips, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 2,569,371 are found in every bargain basement and coutourier salon, and in every discount house and boutique therebetween. Metal clips sometimes snag or rip the garment when roughly used by harried sales clerks or frenzied bargain-hunters, and the thin, sharp edged sheet metal clips can scratch or cut the user's fingers.
Molded plastic garment hanger clips of the kind shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,203,061 and 3,456,262 have been proposed in an effort to avoid some of the disadvantages of metal clips, but they often require comparatively expensive custom-formed leaf spring such as spring 20 in U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,061, or spring 13 in U.S. Pat. No. 3,456,262 specified as having an "angle .theta. . . . greater than 90.degree. and preferably about 105.degree." between its top portion and each leg portion. Such leaf springs often require costly custom shaped ends such as dimpled end 210 fitting into matingly-shaped recesses such as recess 29 in the plastic clamping jaws of U.S. Pat. No. 3,456,262.
Accordingly a principal object of the present invention is the provision of a molded plastic garment clamp with relatively thick wall-sections, having identical, reversible jaws cooperatively interfitting with each other in sturdy, snag-proof relation.
Another object is to provide such molded garment clamps resiliently biassed by standard helical coil wire springs having tangentially protruding short free ends to form so-called "torsion" springs.
A further object of the invention is to provide garment clamps of this character with flush, snag-proof external surfaces while captively retaining both clamping jaws securely on a central pivot rod.
Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.